Six-hospital Piedmont Healthcare will add Athens (Ga.) Regional Health System to its growing portfolio.
In a statement this week, Piedmont CEO Kevin Brown said Piedmont and Athens Regional share common cultures and a focus on family-centered care.
“Working together, there's a clear opportunity for Athens Regional to be a larger, regional hub for healthcare, expanding our collective reach across the state,” Brown said.
In October, Atlanta-based Piedmont completed a tie-up with Piedmont Newton Hospital (formerly Newton Medical Center) in Covington, Ga.
The deals come hot on the heels of Wellstar Health System's announced blockbuster acquisition of five Georgia hospitals belonging to investor-owned Tenet Healthcare Corp.
Not-for-profit WellStar, based in Marietta, Ga., will gain an immediate presence in Atlanta, while adding 26 physician clinics and doubling the number of hospitals in its system, including two trauma centers. The sale price for the Tenet hospitals is $575 million, plus the assumption of $86 million in debt.
Wellstar and Piedmont offer joint health insurance products that included, until earlier this year, Medicare Advantage plans. The joint venture also sold employer health plans, and had 12,000 enrollees in the Medicare managed-care plan.
Piedmont's audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015, showed that the system posted an operating surplus of $137.5 million on revenue of $1.86 billion, compared with a prior-year operating surplus of $60.9 million on revenue of $1.66 billion.
Piedmont's net surplus in 2015 fell to $108.8 million, compared with $129.5 million in 2014, because of a huge negative swing in investment income. For 2015, the system posted investment income of just $3.5 million versus $83.2 million in 2014.
Athens Regional has weathered some management turmoil this year. In May, its CEO James Thaw resigned after some physicians published a letter stating their concerns over the installation of a new electronic health-record system, the Athens Banner-Herald reported.
According to the latest publicly available audited financials for Athens Regional, the system, in its 2014 fiscal year ended Sept. 30, posted an operating loss of $35.1 million on revenue of $427.6 million, compared with a fiscal 2013 operating surplus of $3.5 million on revenue of $431.8 million.
